1. Field
Example embodiments are related to systems and/or methods for network routing, and for example, to systems and/or methods for improving routing performance of native and overlay layers of a network.
2. Background
Overlay networks, i.e., overlay layers, have recently gained attention as a viable alternative to overcome functionality limitations (e.g., lack of quality of service (QoS), difficulty in geo-positioning, multicast support, etc.) of the Internet. The basic idea of overlay layers is to form a virtual network on top of the physical network so that overlay nodes may be customized to incorporate more complex functionality without modifying native routers. A conventional routing method for an overlay layer is designed to sense the characteristics of an underlying native network, i.e. native layer, and dynamically adapt the overlay layer's routing tables in a selfish manner to the characteristics of the underlying native network to offer enhanced routing performance to the overlay layer's traffic.
However, in a resource constrained world, where the native layer performs traffic engineering (TE), the selfish behavior of the overlay layer in making routing decisions may cause problems in a network, for example, poorer network performance (e.g., higher delay, higher jitter, lower throughput), traffic route oscillations, increased routing cost, and resource starvation. Instability and sub-optimality is exacerbated if there is a conflict in objective between the overlay layer and the native layer. For example, a conflict may occur between conventional overlay routing aiming to minimize latency between the nodes of the overlay layer and conventional traffic engineering aiming to balance load in the underlying native layer.